When students need a helping hand

By Gabriele Lingenfelter, CPA, MBA, and Philip H. Umansky, CPA, Ph.D.

Teaching accounting entails that some students will eventually need help outside of class. Whether these students get confused during the introduction of debits and credits, during the discussion of adjusting entries or when preparing bond journal entries, classroom instruction may not be enough for some students to understand the material and to obtain the desired grade.

Elaina Ford, a tutor at Christopher Newport University (CNU) in spring 2015, said, “Most students struggled because they could not keep their debits and credits straight, which affected more advanced topics.” Tutoring is needed now more than ever due to larger sections of courses available; some students need a “high touch” environment to stay motivated in a difficult and, in what may seem an impersonal, course.

The word “tutor” comes from the Latin word “tueri,” which means to watch over or look after. In English and Irish secondary schools, tutors are teaching assistants. The term “tutoring,” as used in this article, refers to remedial or additional teaching to assist students who need extra help with their studies.

Tutoring can occur in various formats. There are online tutoring services, in-person private tutoring, tutoring that is provided through a central university department, tutoring provided by the respective department and peer tutoring. One online tutoring service for accounting can be found at accountingtutor.org/online-accounting-tutoring. A quick Internet search will also find websites that let students search for private tutors in the subject with which they need help, such as wyzant.com. While online and private tutoring are always an option, this article focuses on tutoring services that two Virginia universities, CNU and Virginia Union University (VUU), provide for their students, as well as some general practices in the field.

Tutoring at CNU and VUU

At CNU, the Center for Academic Success (CAS) offers free tutoring for all currently enrolled CNU students in a wide variety of subjects, including accounting. Students can make 30-minute appointments or stop by the Center on a drop-in basis. The Center is run by Jeannine Leger, MS NCC, director of Academic Success Services; it also employs two coordinators (one for sophomores and one for upperclassmen) and two university fellows, who are recent CNU graduates and work mainly with freshmen and part-time subject area tutors who are current students. The CNU tutoring program assigns two tutors per

academic topic, and recommends approximately four sessions until grades improve. Sophomores primarily take advantage of tutoring in accounting.

Other schools prefer to keep tutoring for accounting students within the accounting department or the business school and use either students or faculty to provide services. At VUU, introductory accounting students are tutored by professors. VUU students are required to not only complete tutorials, which are part of their final course grade, but they must also go and pick up the tutorials from the professor/tutor to review items that were incorrect. This method allows for the professor/tutor and student to form a bond that demonstrates a form of caring by both parties. The method has increased the passage rate in VUU introductory accounting courses, and works in part because accounting sections are small at VUU.

General tutoring practices

Student tutor

At some universities, departments hire seniors to tutor students enrolled in accounting principle courses. The CNU accounting department used student tutors for a number of years: accounting faculty would nominate a senior who had an A in both intermediate courses, and this tutor was hired as a student worker to tutor 2–4 hours a week. Faculty worked very closely with the departmental tutor, providing him/her with review guides, copies of assignments and access to graded student exams for review purposes.

Peer tutoring

Some students find help in informal peer tutoring. Friends may study together before an exam or work on homework assignments. We highly encourage students to form these informal study groups, as both the stronger and weaker student can benefit. Studying with someone their own age typically makes students feel more comfortable and relaxed and they may feel more willing to ask questions. Peer tutors can also explain which strategies they use to understand difficult concepts.

Two-way street

Tutors can receive benefits, too. According to the old adage, “to teach is to learn twice,” students enhance their own understanding of material through tutoring. Studies have shown that between two groups of students, one that simply reads information and another that must read and then teach the material to others, the teaching group performs better when tested. In addition, tutoring can be a form of practice for when a student advances in his or her profession and will need to explain certain areas of practice to both supervisors and those who report to him or her.

“Tutoring principles of accounting in particular was a great way to refresh material that I may have learned years ago,” said Matt Guendert, a CNU tutor during spring 2015.

“Tutoring also acted as an introduction to the experience of teaching in a classroom, which would help to prepare me for a career in teaching if I choose to follow that path.”

Of course, the professor can also require more formal peer tutoring. While some schools have set up sophisticated peer tutoring programs, most of us have use a group assignment in our principles classes. Assigning a longer homework problem as a group project can lead to peer tutoring.

What makes a good tutor?

A good accounting tutor should have five characteristics:

1. Accounting knowledge: He or she should really “know” accounting. This can be measured via a national tutoring certification, but with respect to university accounting tutors, knowledge is usually determined by the grade the tutor received in the two intermediate accounting courses and other upper-level accounting classes.
2. Professionalism and adherence to academic integrity: At CNU, tutors are not allowed to work on homework problems or other assignments with students unless the students have made an honest attempt at doing the work themselves. Also, the student needs to be assured that the tutor will not discuss his or her personal issues, such as learning disabilities and grades.
3. Common sense: Book knowledge is important, but the tutor needs to have the common sense to explain a difficult accounting topic with helpful tips and tricks.
4. A good relationship with the accounting faculty
5. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

At CNU’s Center for Academic Success, new tutors are trained in a one-on-one meeting with the coordinator. During this meeting, the new tutor learns about the Center’s tutoring philosophy, which stresses independent learning, best tutoring strategies and academic integrity. Continuing tutors attend a group session each academic term during which the coordinator addresses issues that arose in the previous term and works through a few tutoring scenarios. However, CNU has an even loftier goal for the future. According to Leger, “Our goal in the next couple of years is to require all tutors to complete a national tutor certification course, which will teach them most, if not all, of these concepts in an actual course.”

Pathways commission recommendation

The Pathways Commission, a joint venture of the American Accounting Association and American Institute of CPAs, has recommended ways to develop a national strategy to enhance the quality and integrity of accounting education and ensure a strong pipeline of accountants.

In its July 2012 report, “Charting a National Strategy for the Next Generation of Accountants,” the Commission named as an objective “to transform the first course of

accounting,” and its related action item is to “build on previous efforts regarding how the first course in accounting is designed and delivered.” We know that not every student pursuing accounting will have what it takes to make it through rigorous accounting courses. But we all likely had that one student who was struggling in accounting at first, but after additional help with a tutor grasped the concepts and successfully finished his or her accounting degree.

Having an effective tutoring program can help with the Pathways Commission’s objective to “transform the first course of accounting.”

Gabriele Lingenfelter, CPA, MBA, teaches auditing, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and principles of accounting at Christopher Newport University in Newport News. She also is a frequent contributor to the Journal of Critical Incidents and a reviewer for the Society for Case Research.

Philip Umansky, CPA, Ph.D., is an associate professor of business and chair of the Accounting and Finance Department in the Sydney Lewis School of Business at Virginia Union University.